68 C10 Project FROSTBYTE Extreme Dropmember

[ridinlow68]

UPDATE! Look what came in while I was on vacation! I was actually excited to get back to open it up! haha After doing some thinking about where I wanted to go with this project, I decided I wanted to go with a 4L80E instead of a 700R4. It'll be a stronger transmission, and I'll have more control over it. It has a 2200 stall converter, which will be plenty for me.

I'm still deciding on which transmission controller I'm going to be going with, I've looked at just about all of them, any opinions on them would be greatly appreciated! I'd like to get one that is compatible with an IPAD because I'm going to be controlling everything else on the IPAD.

No pictures of progress of the rest of the truck, just been cleaning up the cab a little bit seeing how much rust I'm dealing with. It's the typical places for rust, small pinholes in the cab corners and a little bit at the rockers near the kick panel. The drip rails don't look bad either. We'll see how bad everything really is once it's completely stripped down.

[ridinlow68]

No updates, just a couple pictures. Pulled it outside to get some sun! This is at ride height. Of course I couldn't resist to throw the front fender on there real quick. Can't wait to get moving on this, works' been keeping me real busy lately...

[Bennett68C10]

Looks great, did you get that big ole 4l80e installed yet. Just wondering if you have to modify the floor any to get it to fit. I really want one for my truck eventually.

[mooseknuckles]

nice!

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by Bennett68C10

Looks great, did you get that big ole 4l80e installed yet. Just wondering if you have to modify the floor any to get it to fit. I really want one for my truck eventually.

Thanks! I haven't installed the 4l80E yet...I'm wondering the same thing! lol I did get a high hump to get me part way there, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to extend it back and up a little bit more. I'll make sure to let you know when I've got it installed and the floor modified.

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by mooseknuckles

nice!

Thanks!

[rwade]

I've got the mild drop member with the 4L80E and I've got a ton of room. I know the extreme is an additional 2" but I'd test fit before just cutting your floor. I did cut the big "ears" off the bell housing for header clearance though. Love the direction your truck is taking. Very nice!

Wade

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by rwade

I've got the mild drop member with the 4L80E and I've got a ton of room. I know the extreme is an additional 2" but I'd test fit before just cutting your floor. I did cut the big "ears" off the bell housing for header clearance though. Love the direction your truck is taking. Very nice!

Wade

Thanks for the heads up! I got the high hump trans tunnel, so I'm going to start from there and then see what, if anything else needs to be cut. I'll be sure to take pictures.

[bcutt]

Truck looks awesome man! I am staring at my bare frame right now and it is just begging for some Porterbuilt/Accuair love..LOL

Brandon

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by bcutt

Truck looks awesome man! I am staring at my bare frame right now and it is just begging for some Porterbuilt/Accuair love..LOL

Brandon

Thanks Brandon! Pretty much any frame looks a lot better with Porterbuilt/Accuair products! haha

[Mattyparty]

Awesome

[ridinlow68]

Well I finally have a little bit of progress to report! My dad and I were able to get the transmission installed along with the high hump, which looks like it's going to fit perfectly! We also ended up cutting out the dash, I'm looking at getting a custom dash made up, so it had to go! No turning back now! The cab and doors are hopefully going to get media blasted this week and then it's off to the body shop! Can't wait!

[jtp67-72]

Hey Rick I thought i had enough room too but when I started setting the 4-5* trans hit the high hump...Not tryin to spoil it but make sure the rear drop is right....May just have been me!!!...........Update ....just realized your using sbc instead of ls....may be the difference....my bad.............jim

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

Hey Rick I thought i had enough room too but when I started setting the 4-5* trans hit the high hump...Not tryin to spoil it but make sure the rear drop is right....May just have been me!!!...........Update ....just realized your using sbc instead of ls....may be the difference....my bad.............jim

Hey Jim, thanks for the heads up, not sure how much of a difference the 2 blocks would have. Where it's at right now is about 6* and needs to shift up a little less than an inch to make it 5*. It's going to be tight, I had about an 1.25" clearance, so I may need to pound on the high hump to get a little more breathing room. I'm going to be back on it tomorrow night to get it squared away for sure.

[uxdesigner]

Really nice build! Excellent wheel choice!

[jtp67-72]

Originally Posted by ridinlow68

Hey Jim, thanks for the heads up, not sure how much of a difference the 2 blocks would have. Where it's at right now is about 6* and needs to shift up a little less than an inch to make it 5*. It's going to be tight, I had about an 1.25" clearance, so I may need to pound on the high hump to get a little more breathing room. I'm going to be back on it tomorrow night to get it squared away for sure.

I had to take two high humps and make one about 2" taller....let me know if u have to raise ..i will post picks od mine...jim

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

I had to take two high humps and make one about 2" taller....let me know if u have to raise ..i will post picks od mine...jim

Alright, sounds good, I'll let you know. Thanks a lot!

[SCOTI]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

Hey Rick I thought i had enough room too but when I started setting the 4-5* trans hit the high hump...Not tryin to spoil it but make sure the rear drop is right....May just have been me!!!...........Update ....just realized your using sbc instead of ls....may be the difference....my bad.............jim

Ditto on the one I was putting together (68). It was a sbc Dropmember Extreme that I cut some sbc to LS adapter plates for.

With the sbc/700r4, no clearance issues w/the high-hump cover. Once the 6.0/4l80e was swapped in, there was definite interference. With some adjustable conversion plates, I might have been able to pull the motor farther forward but I was worried about clearance farther up front between the radiator/fan & accessory drive.

I had to trim extra sheet metal when setting it up for 3-5° drivetrain angle. It also might be compensated for w/the correct DM LS style mounts....

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

I had to take two high humps and make one about 2" taller....let me know if u have to raise ..i will post picks od mine...jim

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Ditto on the one I was putting together (68). It was a sbc Dropmember Extreme that I cut some sbc to LS adapter plates for.

With the sbc/700r4, no clearance issues w/the high-hump cover. Once the 6.0/4l80e was swapped in, there was definite interference. With some adjustable conversion plates, I might have been able to pull the motor farther forward but I was worried about clearance farther up front between the radiator/fan & accessory drive.

I had to trim extra sheet metal when setting it up for 3-5° drivetrain angle. It also might be compensated for w/the correct DM LS style mounts....

So I just got back from the garage after re-adjusting everything and I now have the transmission set to 5*. I'm just hitting in a couple spots, but it looks like all I'm going to have to do is change the shape of the top of the high hump by pounding it up and giving it a curve instead of it being flat. If I went up to a 3* slope I could definitely see that there would be more interference and it would become an issue.

When you guys were measuring the 5* slope of the transmission, where were you taking it from? The back of the tail shaft? Maybe I'm taking the measurement at the wrong spot... Everything seems to look right and after checking my other angles for the drive shaft, those seem to be pretty much spot on as well... Let me know if you could. Thanks!

[lolife99]

Back of the trans with the frame level.
Not setting on its wheels.

[jtp67-72]

Originally Posted by ridinlow68

So I just got back from the garage after re-adjusting everything and I now have the transmission set to 5*. I'm just hitting in a couple spots, but it looks like all I'm going to have to do is change the shape of the top of the high hump by pounding it up and giving it a curve instead of it being flat. If I went up to a 3* slope I could definitely see that there would be more interference and it would become an issue.

When you guys were measuring the 5* slope of the transmission, where were you taking it from? The back of the tail shaft? Maybe I'm taking the measurement at the wrong spot... Everything seems to look right and after checking my other angles for the drive shaft, those seem to be pretty much spot on as well... Let me know if you could. Thanks!

I like to use the bellhousing flange ( back of block ) or if intake is off lay straight edge across end valleys with digital angle finder I have...remember on most sbc intakes u can't use carb flange because it already has 3-4* built in to level carb when engine and trans are set to specs....I have used back of tailshaft too..........jim

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by lolife99

Back of the trans with the frame level.
Not setting on its wheels.

Thanks Keith! That's where everything was at, so it looks like I'm in good shape.

[ridinlow68]

Originally Posted by jtp67-72

I like to use the bellhousing flange ( back of block ) or if intake is off lay straight edge across end valleys with digital angle finder I have...remember on most sbc intakes u can't use carb flange because it already has 3-4* built in to level carb when engine and trans are set to specs....I have used back of tailshaft too..........jim

Alright, cool, I'll check both those places too. I wish I had a digital angle finder, it would make things a whole lot easier. Should probably just go ahead and get one since I'll be using it quite a bit more. Thanks Jim.

[jtp67-72]

Sears is where i got mine.....and I forgot .....Keith is right....frame level............

[Chvy2NV]

Hey guys. You can download an app by Tremec. It's free and works really well. If something is off. It also tells you what you need to do to get it within the acceptable parameters.